a rose by any other name
by solicitors
Summary: he tells her he loves her nine times, only once does he really knows what he means — lucas/maya


**what is it with my obsession with the numbered things. fyck idk. anyway blah blah blah he says i love you so many times and only means it once thanks.**

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 **i, eighth grade**

Graduation of middle school. And she's graduating, yes she is. (Only from middle school, but farther than her father probably made it.) And _he's_ the one who's valedictorian (never mind Farkle, who was much disappointed in that matter but smiled through it anyway) and he's the one who's giving the speech to the whole school. "Thank you," is what he says on numerous accounts. This one stands out, however. "For helping me get through a whole two years of being the new kid."

And his eyes catch hers.

He continues. "Thank you for letting me be who I am," he says in a breathy matter, his eyes focused on hers (yet everyone thinks that he's talking to the whole student body, only they know know the truth), "for letting me move past my mistakes and move on."

"I love..." and his breath catches his own. And he stands there for only a moment or two, thinking about what to say. He finishes. "I love my friends for getting me through these difficult two years of middle school. I can't wait for the adventures to come."

 **ii, ninth grade**

Everything's different in high school, different class schedules and different lifestyle and different time for waking up. And John Quincy Adams High is no place for slacking off, she manages to realize that halfway through her ninth year of school. And tests are coming up, those type of tests that _matter_ and she's certainly unprepared as she had been focusing mainly on catching up with her slack she had managed to conjure up in only four months.

And she's _certain_ she's going to fail. (She is, isn't she?)

But her best friend drags her to her house, along with Lucas, Farkle, and Zay who seem perfectly fine in passing the mandatory test she is going to fail.

And by the end of the night, he's told his friends that he loves them twenty different times each and every time he gets an answer right on the practice test. "And I _love_ you," he says, while glancing at her quickly, then turning back to his book.

He doesn't think she notices (but she does).

 **iii** **, ninth grade**

She sometimes thinks he throws around the word uselessly and carelessly (until later she realizes that she's the only one he uses it on besides his mother). Because when he forgets his bag at her house with all of his AP notes while they were doing a project, he has a panic attack. Nearly faints as he calls her at five in the morning (how did she ever wake up?!) with a panicked tone and tears threatening to fall.

He spent _forever_ on those notes. He was not going to fail now because he forgot his damned bookbag at his friends house. She tells him that she found it at the base of her bed and _yes_ , Lucas, I'll bring it. And _stop_ , Lucas, you're making my ears hurt. And _Lucas_ , I'm going to go back to sleep.

So when she drags his fifty pound bag all the way to the glass doors of the school and lets it sag on the floor all the way to his locker (it's his fault for losing it at her house!) he screeches in happiness and wraps his tiny friend in a gigantic hug to where she can barely breathe.

"IloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou," he repeats multiple times before letting go of his gasping friend. "Thank you so much."

She stretches dramatically and yawns. "Yeah, whatever, Huckleberry."

 **iv, tenth grade**

And he _knows_ he's dead by the look on her face as her head slowly, but surely, drifts up from her now water ridden shirt and the look of revenge laced on her features. He sheepishly held the water gun in his hand and a look of fear broke out. Farkle stood solemnly to his side, slowly creeping behind his tall friend to get out of the punishment that was about to be present.

She picked at her shirt with her fingers and looked back up at him, snatching the water gun from his hands and poking his hard chest with it. He groaned in pain and his body fell against the lockers with a loud shutter and he turned to his left only to see his best bud, Farkle, scurrying off.

"Nope!" he heard the small blonde in front of him say, pointing to Farkle and giving him a hard glare as he slowly made his way back to the pair. Farkle stood close to his best friend, shaking in fear as he didn't know the outcome of the predicament they were in. She was angry, _really_ angry. "Stand next to your friend," she stated.

He did just so and the two boys quaked in their boots as she stared at them, thinking. The water gun still aimed at them, she shook it. "My _new_ shirt, Lucas!" she groaned. "You just had to pull a prank on me right when I decided to wear my new shirt!"

"I didn't know you were going to wear your new shirt!" he defended himself as his hands shot up in the air, his best friend quickly following. "We didn't know!"

"Mhmmm," she drawled with a lick of her lips, stepping near them, the water gun poking his chest. "What do you have to say for yourselves?" she asked them, her gaze intent on the tall, green-eyed boy in front of her.

"I love you?" he choked, unaware of what to say to her. Her eyebrows shot up in amusement, her shirt still wet and her smile mischievous.

She then looked to her right to Farkle to see if he had anything to say, he only stood slack jawed with no sound coming from his mouth. And then her attention turned back to the taller, more tan one with a smile. "Wrong answer." And that is why he came home looking like a wet dog.

 **v, tenth grade**

"Give me your bag," he grumbled, yanking the heavy suitcase away from her small hands.

"What, no!" she protested, attempting to take it back with a slight tug; no success. "Lucas," she stated, crossing her arms over her breast. "I do _not_ need you to carry my bags to the shuttle, it's like a three second walk."

He rolled his eyes and ignored her protests, walking up to the shuttle cart and placing her bags in the carry. "Anyway," she grumbled with an annoyed sigh. She turned around to bid goodbye to her other friends. Her best friend was already in a jumbled mess of tears, spitting out incoherent things that could possibly happen.

"What if... what if," she sobbed. "What if you get _kidnapped_? Or even worse, what if your plane crashes on the way back? What if you get a deadly disease on the plane and you die before you touch the ground for help? What if—"

"Okay, Riles," she interrupted with a terse nod, "I love you but you gotta stop. I'm only going to be gone for a week and nothing bad is going to happen."

"You don't know that!" she wailed, her head shaking. She merely rolled her eyes with a soft smile and turned to her other best friend, whom was in the process of balling just as many tears as her brunette best friend from the moment before. She stared at Farkle with a quizzical look and turned to bid goodbyes to a few other people. And then there was _him_.

A shit-eating grin erupted on his features and he chuckled. "What, you not gonna say goodbye to me?" She rolled her eyes as he grabbed her hand to pull her tightly into a hug. "Mmmmmm," he muttered, "you're warm."

"Yeah, whatever," she chuckled, pulling away from his embrace and turning around to meet with her mother whom was up far ahead. She scurried to meet her before she heard her tall friend yelp something behind her as she met up with her mom.

"Love ya!"

A blush erupted on her face and she turned away so her mother wouldn't be able to see it, but her mother managed to do so anyway. "Who's that?"

 **vi, eleventh grade**

And he's _drunk_ off of his ass. He doesn't know what to think or say or do, and she's quite amused with the way he walks. Sure, she's quite tipsy herself but he must have had multiple more shots than she had, and it's quite _hilarious_. Giggles hiccuped out of her mouth as she watched him attempt to come over to her.

Once he finally made his way next to her, he draped his body onto hers like a sloth and snuggled up close to her face and sighed happily with a goofy smile. "You're warm," he said with a hiccup, while she laughed and took his hand in hers, dropping her head onto his shoulder.

And they sit there for a moment, watching as people tumble around the room in a facetious matter, taking in each other's scent. And he turns to her, with his familiar goofy smile laced on his features and a glint in his eye and he says something that he'll only forget the next day, and that she'll think about every night. "I love you," but not so simple as that. His words are slurred and most obviously drunk, and he certainly has no utter idea what he's saying - but it's just _that_. He says it with such assurance that her head shoots up and asks him to repeat what he had said.

And he says it again with confidence in his voice as if nothing would ever change, as if that's how it had always been (it has). But she only assumes that he means in a friend type of way, because he can't like her in that other non platonic type of way. He just can't.

She's wrong.

 **vii, eleventh grade**

Those three words manage to sneak their way into everyday conversation until it's completely normal for the pair. After endless phone calls in the dead of night to one another, with sleepy yawns and drowsy eyes, they just quip up a tiny "I love you" to one another and say goodnight. After parting their ways from their Friday night hang outs, she gives him a quick kiss on his cheek and a faint "I love you" as she closes the door behind her.

It's just as simple as that, because they do, they really do. Although, they both think they love each other in a completely and totally non romantic type way, in the utterly, only, and will always be friends type of way. Yet, they fail to realize it's quite the opposite.

Not oblivious and not clueless Riley Matthews picks up on this a few times. Once when Maya gets a phone call and she keeps telling the other person on the other side of the line a variety of names, including the infamous Huckleberry. She had to figure it would be Lucas. And when she had finally finished her endless conversation about taking care of herself and agreeing to do things she knows she would never do, her ears perked up near the end.

"Yeah, okay! Whatever Cowboy, I'll make sure I go to the doctors tomorrow! Okay fine, pick me up some apples for all I care. Fine, I do care!" Riley rolled her eyes at that part and watched as her best friend grew easily irritated with the Texan on the other line. "I was supposed to have a movies night, Huckleberry." Pause. "Yes, with Riley! Who else, do you expect me to pick Missy Bradford out of the random ass people basket?"

And then a giggle escaped Maya's mouth and that's when Riley started to pay attention, because Maya had certainly _never_ giggled, at least never in front of her. "Yeah yeah, okay. Look, I got to go!" And then she nodded her head for a moment or two before rolling her eyes. "Okay, whatever. Bye Huckleberry; yeah, I love you too." And then she hung up.

And that's why Riley's mouth hung agape during the whole course of the movie they watched (certainly not for the fact that they were watching a rather... intimate film). It must have been just a little thing to escape her mouth, certainly! But it happened on numerous accounts after that.

Another time was when all five of them were hanging out and Riley and Maya were going home to Riley's house, which was on the other side of town. Lucas prompted them to make sure the ladies safely walked and boarded the subway and Maya had, with an annoyed expression of course, agreed to let him do so. Once the train had shown up, he bid both of them with a quick hug, lingering a bit longer with Maya.

Once she shoved away from him, she waved him goodbye and shouted a quick "I love you!" while he turned around and responded with the same saying before she spun around to her best friend, whom had her jaw dropped.

The blonde touched her best friend's chin slightly with an incredulous look and shoved it upwards slightly, only failing as her chin fell back down. "Riley, sweetie," she grimaced, "you're going to catch flies.

"Since _when_ ," Riley insinuated with a sharp glare at her best friend (she was quite angry for the fact that her best friend didn't tell her that she was completely and totally in love with Lucas), "have you liked Lucas?!"

The smaller one's eyebrows bunched up in confusion and a slight laugh escaped her lips. "I - I don't know what you're talking about." And then Riley thought to herself, could _her_ very own best friend be this oblivious and unaware? Apparently.

But she let it be with a knowing smile on her face and a plan, knowing that the pair would eventually get together.

 **viii** **, twelfth grade**

It's a funny sight at first, really. If you were an outsider to the current situation and unaware of the circumstances, all you would merely understand and see was that Lucas Friar would be picking up Maya Hart and throwing her over the shoulder for unknown and unimportant reasons and barging out the school. And then you'd blink, and never think twice about it. Things like that happened often with the pair and the whole student body had just managed to accept that there was an ongoing sexual tension between the two that would never fade if they didn't do something about it and move on.

But what really happened was quite different than what the average person would perceive.

She comes to school a complete, and total mess. Hair frizzed and a loud cough escaping her lips. The moment she walks into the school with her bag dragging the ground in a pitiful matter, you can _see_ the moment he looks over and rolls his eyes. "Yeah, okay," he says, completely tuning out of what Zay was saying and walking over to the one and only blonde beauty.

"Let's go home," he says, picking up her bag from the floor. She protests meekly, holding her temples slightly as she shakes her head.

"What do _you_ think you're doing?" she asks him with a slight slur, reaching to grab the bag from his hands, but he held it firmly above her head where she could never reach it. "That's not fair," she groaned.

He held the back of his hand to her forehead and he rolled his eyes as she protested. "Yeah, you're not staying at school," he stated with a simple shrug, throwing the bag over his shoulder and attempting to lead her out through the doors. No way in hell was he going to allow her to stay at school when she was _that_ sick.

She refused to follow, standing her ground with her arms crossed and a glare directed towards him. "Give me my bag back!" she yelled, reaching to grab her backpack behind his back but stumbling as she did so, nearly face planting if he had not successfully caught her.

He ignored her pleas as she groaned about how she had a test in third period that she couldn't miss and he crouched down, grabbing her body and throwing it seamlessly over his shoulder as she protested, banging the back of his back. "I don't want to go!" she whined. "I have a test!"

And then he turned around for a quick moment, her face facing the glass doors of the school and her ass right near his face as he called back to his friends for a moment, her body still hanging off his shoulder. "I'll probably be right back if she doesn't kill me before we get home!" And all they did was nod, as if this was a normal, everyday occurrence in the scheme of Maya and Lucas (and it certainly was).

After he had successfully opened the car door and plopped her down in the passenger side of the car, he securely fastened her seat belt with a quick tug and leaned the chair back far enough so that she could pass out. She was going to need to sleep if she were ever going to take that apparent needed test in third period.

As soon as he started the car, he looked to his right only to see her passed out, a loud snore escaping her mouth and her eyes half lidded with drowsiness and unawareness. He chuckled to himself and put his car and reverse and drove all the way to her house, a few minute drive, being fully aware that he'd be late to first period.

As he stopped the car, she slowly drew awake from her short nap with a groan, the palms of her hands running up and down her temples slowly. "I have a headache, Lucas," she yawned, her head lolling to the side of the seat in a tired manner. "I'm so tired."

"I know," he said plainly, opening her door and unbuckling her seat belt to swoop her up and carry her body to the front door of her apartment. He leaned down slightly to receive the key under the welcome mat and opened the door with a small _click_ to welcome themselves without invitation into her friendly abode

The place was scattered with week old food and unpayed bills and he rolled his eyes slightly with a smile and set her on the couch, her head falling back to the arm rest with a yawn. "I have a test in third period..." she mumbled.

"I know," he responded, grabbing a few blankets from her closet and draping them over her as a goofy smile placed on her features. "You can make it up later."

"I studied all night for the test, you know," she stated with a hiccup and then a sneeze. "I think I did so, at least. I forgot."

"That's good."

"I'm gonna takeanap."

"That's good," he promised, listening to her small ramblings as he rummaged through her kitchen for a can of soup and a bowl.

She nodded to herself proudly with a giggle, and then shifted her body onto the couch uncomfortably with a groan. "I don't like taking naps with shoes." She continued after a yawn. "Or socks. I never take naps with pants, either."

"What do you want me to do about that?" he asked softly, forgetting about the soup on the counter and making his way over the small little blonde on the couch who's face was heating up.

"My arms weigh _way_ too much. I don't want to reach over and untie my shoes, my fingers hurt and when I lean over, I get those nasty little shooting pains, you know?" She sat up and groaned as she tenderly touched her back. "I'm like an old woman, will you help me?"

"Yeah, okay," he chuckled to himself and reached over to her shoes, quickly grabbing each lace and with a light tug and he throwing her shoes off to set them near the base of the couch. Then he grabbed her socks and pulled them off, placing them by her shoes. "And do you want me to take your pants off?" He knew the sentence didn't quite ring well, but he was hoping that she wouldn't remember the question at all. She nodded slightly, her lip quivering from holding back an oncoming laugh.

She would totally remember this, and make fun of him from there on out if she had the chance and he groaned, shaking his head at her mischievous antics. "Take off my _pants_!" He reached over and grabbed the base of her pants, slowly tugging them off her body and throwing them to the base of the couch, along with her socks and shoes. "Now that's better," she breathed with satisfaction, her chest rising up and down slowly.

He turned around to go finish up her soup only before she called his name, her voice raspy and stuffed from her sickness. "Lucas," she said and he turned around. "I don't like soup."

"Soup makes you feel better and will help you go to sleep."

"It doesn't help _me_ go to sleep," she argued. Damn, she was just a lot of work, wasn't she?

"Okay.." he mumbled, making his way back to her. "What helps you go to sleep?"

She thought to herself for a moment, contemplating on what to say. "When I was little," she responded, moving her body slightly, "whenever I was afraid of lightening, my mom would come into my room and rub my back. You know, like draw aimless circles on my back, like tickling it? That always helped me go to sleep."

"So you want _me_ ," he questioned her with a raise of his eyebrows, "to get in bed with you and tickle your back?"

"Yessssss."

"Okay, whatever," he rolled his eyes promptly, moving the sheets from above her and climbing under the sheets to get onto the couch with her, throwing the sheets back on so she could keep warm. Her body was small and tiny compared to his, her head only reaching the bottom of his chin as she nestled into his chest, a satisfied sigh escaping her lips. He hitched up her shirt slightly and watched her face go into the soothingly state of rest as he drew aimless circles over her back.

Something about the situation they were in, her puffed up cheeks and her red nose, her current state of pantless and her raspy voice, completely threw Lucas off into a state he had never known before. Something inside of the base of his stomach erupted and he knew that there was something new about his relationship with her. It was going to go much farther than flirty remarks and unacknowledged sexual tension.

"I love you," he says and he doesn't know what he's saying, but he knows that he means it. He figures that she doesn't hear what he's saying, as she's completely passed out. She doesn't really understand the words coming from his mouth because she's slurred in her sleep, but she knows that he said something, she just doesn't know what.

He decides not to go back to school, he knows that she'll be distressed when she wakes up in an empty apartment. On top of that, her body is tangled with his and if he even dare moves his feet, she'll wake up immediately and he doesn't want to deal with angry Maya. And she's warm, really warm, and the thought of sleep is really luring him despite the fact that she's heavily snoring and then he's out like a light.

It's a funny sight to see when her other friends walk in after school to see how she's doing, only to see their bodies tangled up under sheets of blankets, her without pants and his hand lying still on her shirtless back. Her head nestled into his hard chest and their snores both heavy.

Zay takes a picture.

 **ix, twelfth grade**

And he tells her he loves her in the middle of the night, only to wake her up right before testing. He thinks he realizes it right then and right there, that he loves her in the way that you want to kiss and the way that you want to hold hands and the way that you want to live the rest of your life with someone. He thinks he does, he knows he does.

And so he calls her up, looking at the clock to his right only to read 3:29 AM, but he dials her number anyway. Because he's got way too many thoughts boiling in his head to go to sleep and he will never be able to even _go_ to sleep unless he tells her. Because it's her, and it's always been her, and it will always _be_ her.

So when she answers her phone with a slur of profanities and a mumbling speech that's anything but coherent, he has to hold back a chuckle because he thinks, this is the girl that _I_ love. The girl who called him an endless amount of nicknames for the whole time he's known her, the girl who pulled a bottle away from his hand and threatened to never see him again if he ever thought of drinking (he stopped after that one dreaded night in twelfth grade), the girl who refused to take care of herself so he had to do so. This was the girl he loved, the girl who had the mouth of a sailor and so much more.

So he tells her with the least amount of confidence in the world, but he knows he's assured by the fact that he's completely and totally in love with her. Because he is, he definitely is. He just doesn't know if the feelings are recuperated. And she hangs up, only after she hears those words. He can feel the line go dead and his heart drop down to the base of his stomach as he regrets everything he had ever done.

He shouldn't have told her.

But wait only thirty more minutes and it's 4:01 AM, he hears a knock on his front door, small enough so his mother won't wake up but loud enough so anyone awake could hear. He opens the door and there she is, her hair probably thirty feet bigger than normal, a pair of sweats and one of his old T shirts, and some non matching flip flops she found, with her mothers car keys in her hand.

"Huckleberry," she says with a soft sniffle, her hands tied behind her back in an embarrassed manner and looking anywhere but at him.

"Shortstack," he responds in the same manner, a soft smile playing at the edge of his lips.

And a new chapter begins.

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 **i spell checked most of this but i'm way too lazy to do the res.t sor ry. ...**

 **anyway!11 review and fave ! ! ! !**


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